Here's my favorite lamb dish - Qabili pilau. It's the national dish of Afghanistan, and after a lot of research I developed my recipe for it when our favorite Afghani restaurant closed:
1 Medium onion diced coarsely
2 C long grain brown or white rice
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 1/2 lb lamb, beef or chicken cut in cubes or pieces
3 large carrots
1 cup seedless raisins
1-1 ½ tsp each cinnamon, cumin, cardomom
1/4 tsp saffron (optional)
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
PREPARATION
Brown 1 medium diced onion in oil. Fry until the onion is fairly dark. Add the meat and brown lightly. Add 2 cups of water, 1 tsp. Salt and 1 to 1 ½ tsp each (cinnamon, ground cumin and ground cardamom) Cover and simmer until meat is tender, about an hour. Remove meat from the juice and set juice aside. Bring the meat juice to a boil and add 2 cups rice, 1 ½ tsp salt and enough boiling water to come 2 inches over the rice. Cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender--but NOT mushy. While the rice is cooking, cut 3 carrots into match stick size pieces. Saute carrots and 1 tsp sugar in about 1/4 cup of oil. Cook until they are lightly browned. Remove from oil Add 1 cup of raisins (dried cranberries work, too) to the oil and cook until they swell up. Mix the meat, carrots, raisins and rice together. Place in a large oven-proof casserole, cover and bake at 300 degrees for about a half hour--or up to an hour. To serve--place on platter, making sure the carrots and raisins show on top.
